Bioanalysis for precision medicine

Human genetic variation may lead to different responses from patients who are subjected to the same treatments. The efficacy and potency of a drug may vary because of genetic differences among individuals. In comparison to the ‘one-size-fits all’ treatment (or same treatment for all patients who have similar diseases), precision medicine (PM) has become an important strategy to identify improved diagnostic and targeted therapeutic treatment. In the future, PM may also inform personalized gene therapy treatments. As there are approximately 19,000– 20,000 human protein-coding genes [1], and possibly hundreds of those genes may harbor variations contributing to human illness; hence, it is essential to develop gene-based PM. Gene therapies have already found clinical successes in the treatment of several noncancer diseases, such as severe combined immunodeficiency-X1, hemophilia B and blindness caused by retinitis pigmentosa. Many high mortality diseases including cancers and heart failure have not yet been successfully treated by gene therapies alone. Thus, gene therapy holds promise as an ideal and potentially effective strategy for cancer treatment by incorporating proteomic, lipidomic and metabolomic methodologies.

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